72 MACWORLD AUGUST 2021
FEATURE i OS 15scrolling back through your message
threads. In Messages, you can pin stuff
and it will be elevated in the Shared With
You section of each app.
NOTIFICATIONS
Notifications in iOS are long overdue for an
overhaul, and iOS 15 is adding some much-
needed intelligence and organization. A
Notification Summary brings together that
flood of notifications you’ve been ignoring all
day—set the time you wish to receive it, and
you can catch up easily.
If you’re in Do Not Disturb mode,
others will be able to see that in
Messages, so they know you may not
reply right away. If they’ve got something
really urgent to tell you, they have a way
to break through.
Most interesting is a new Focus mode,
or rather, modes. If you’re focusing on work,
for example, you can set a work focus
mode where only the apps and people you
choose can send you notifications. You can
even pick which apps you want to see on
the home screen in each Focus mode.
On-device intelligence will suggest new
Focus modes based on your activity, but
you can create your own, too.LIVE TEXT
A new feature called “Live Text” uses
machine learning to find text in images
and allows you to treat it like regular text.
This process all happens on the device
to protect your privacy. Point the Camera
app at some text, and you’ll see an
indicator in the lower right that you can
tap to isolate and select the text. You can
then paste it in a message, email, orLive Text recognizes text in images across multiple apps and devices.